The Circle **** (2014, Ernst Ostertag, Robi Rapp) – Movie Review

Writer-director Stefan Haupt‘s 2014 film is the love story of young gay teacher Ernst Ostertag and the young transvestite singing star Robi Rapp he falls for in Zurich in 1958. It is a feature film rather than a documentary but it was the winner of the Best Documentary Film award at the Berlin Film Festival, the Best Documentary Feature award at LA Outfest and Best Feature Film at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in 2014.

At a time when Zurich is a place of freedom for homosexuals in one of the few places where homosexuality wasn’t criminalised in the era, Ernst becomes a member of the pioneering gay organization Der Kreis (The Circle). A good time is had by all, until a serial killer starts targeting homosexuals and the police use their investigation as a way to harass gays violently and close Der Kreis.

The film is moving, informative and tells a very good story that needs telling. The mix of documentary and re-enactments works beautifully and seamlessly. The two main real characters and actors playing them (Matthias Hungerbühler as Ernst and Sven Schelker as Robi) are great.

[Spoiler alert] Ernst Ostertag finally came out on his 70th birthday after the death of his parents, surprising his sister, who is interviewed, saying she wished he’d told her earlier. Ernst and Robbi got married as soon as the Swiss laws permitted gay marriage, becoming the first couple to do so there. They are alive and well and happy, and totally adorable.

Germany was a centre of some tolerance for homosexuals in the 1920s until Hitler criminalised  homosexuality in Germany and persecuted homosexuals in the gas chambers. The postwar German government forgot to reverse the Nazi’s laws, so German gays took the plane to Zurich for gay weekends. We in Britain can’t feel smug. Britain persecuted homosexuals too – look what happened to gay Enigma Codebreaker and computer pioneer Alan Turing, as outlined in the current The Imitation Game (2014) movie. It wasn’t until 1967 that the UK finally decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men over 21.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/